A media researcher and communications educator is warning parents that their children are heading back to school armed with math skills and spelling lists, but with no defense against the misinformation flooding their phones.
Dr. Doda Lulgjuraj, Ph.D., author of “The Talk We Forgot to Have: Raising Resilient Teens in a World Built to Mislead Them,” said the idea for the book came from an incident at his own kitchen table, when his 8-year-old son repeated a fabricated story about a professional athlete that he had seen on a friend’s device.
“If it can happen in my house with my educational and professional background, it can happen to everybody,” Lulgjuraj said.
He said the story his son shared turned out to be harmless, but the moment made him realize how easily children absorb false information without knowing it.
Kids returning to school without critical tools
Lulgjuraj said families spend weeks preparing children academically for the new school year, but overlook a more urgent skill.
“We’re sending them back without the tools to understand what they just consumed. Is it real? Is it fake? Is it credible?” he said, during an appearance on Live in the D.
His research, which surveyed 36 educators across four states, found that teachers agree the problem is real but feel unsupported in addressing it.
“I didn’t expect how alone they feel in addressing this issue,” Lulgjuraj said.
He said teachers widely agree that “media literacy now is a life skill,” but face barriers getting it into curriculums.
Borrowing from vaccines to fight misinformation
Lulgjuraj said his approach draws on “inoculation theory,” a concept borrowed from immunology.
“Let’s build our defenses for our teenagers, teach them what those manipulation tactics are and the content they’re seeing,” he said.
He compared the strategy to how parents already prepare children to recognize danger from strangers, noting that smartphones have quietly erased those instincts.
“We trust these phones so much. It’s kind of taken - I’m going to make up a word here - the strangerness out because we have these devices in our hands all the time now,” Lulgjuraj said.
One question to ask tonight
Rather than telling children outright that something is false, Lulgjuraj recommends a simpler approach that keeps communication open.
“Start with where and not whether,” he said, urging parents to ask children where they encountered a claim rather than whether they believe it.
He said the technique avoids shutting down conversation and instead builds trust between parents and children as they learn to verify information together.
Lulgjuraj’s book is available on Amazon at this link.